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This is what English sounds like to someone who doesn't speak English


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When I was a wee bairn, Northerners talking fast sounded like gibberish, before gradually resolving into words as my mind sped up to understand them.

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5 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

When I was a wee bairn, Northerners talking fast sounded like gibberish, before gradually resolving into words as my mind sped up to understand them.

A real Northern Piney accent, which is extinct now sounded like someone from Maine speaking Middle English. 😆

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4 minutes ago, Piney said:

A real Northern Piney accent, which is extinct now sounded like someone from Maine speaking Middle English. 😆

Don't they still do? 

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1972 wants its idea back (context)

 

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26 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

When I was a wee bairn, Northerners talking fast sounded like gibberish, before gradually resolving into words as my mind sped up to understand them.

I can relate to this. I was talking on the phone to a sweet woman from N Carolina that really had a thick southern accent and was talking very fast. Now remember, we were on a phone, which does nothing to help anything. I just couldn't separate the words and understand what she was saying. We did get everything worked out and had a good conversation. The point is that English is spoken in a multitude of different accents. Even if we only discuss northern and southern. I live in Pennsylvania and I don't sound like someone from Boston or even New York. This woman didn't sound like people I had met in Virginia and Texas just has an accent all its own. Personally, I like the accents but speaking too fast can affect how the words are heard.

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28 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

Don't they still do? 

Nope...The woodjins are extinct. 

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1 hour ago, susieice said:

I can relate to this. I was talking on the phone to a sweet woman from N Carolina that really had a thick southern accent and was talking very fast. Now remember, we were on a phone, which does nothing to help anything. I just couldn't separate the words and understand what she was saying. We did get everything worked out and had a good conversation. The point is that English is spoken in a multitude of different accents. Even if we only discuss northern and southern. I live in Pennsylvania and I don't sound like someone from Boston or even New York. This woman didn't sound like people I had met in Virginia and Texas just has an accent all its own. Personally, I like the accents but speaking too fast can affect how the words are heard.

For Scotch-Irish Southerners like myself, Pennsylvania was the gateway to America for our ancestors. The people who encouraged Ulster Scots to immigrate wanted them to settle the Pennsylvania frontier as a bulwark between the old settled areas near the coast and the wild frontier. Unfortunately, they didn't realize the Ulster-Scotch-Irish never settled down until they had moved at least three times. Whole communities immigrated, en masse bringing with them their local customs and distinctive and disparate archaic dialects of English. Even today I can tell what adjacent county someone is from by their accents. So, in a very real sense as one communicates with Southerners and Northern Scotch-Irish, one hears echoes of Ulster in their myriad voices.

Edited by Hammerclaw
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1 hour ago, Piney said:

Nope...The woodjins are extinct. 

no, Mainelanders

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So they sounds like a three sheets in the wind southerner. 

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Well, and then there's Cajun English, a mix of 200 year old country French and English... But great people and great food!

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5 hours ago, UM-Bot said:

Ever wondered how someone who doesn't speak English might perceive a conversation in English ?

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/384192/this-is-what-english-sounds-like-to-someone-who-doesnt-speak-english

I could tell they were speaking american english,as opposed to english ,english.

Also the mid atlantic movie accent.

I'd like to see that with a boston,new york, Alabama,scouse,geordie or brummy accent.

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5 hours ago, susieice said:

I can relate to this. I was talking on the phone to a sweet woman from N Carolina that really had a thick southern accent and was talking very fast. Now remember, we were on a phone, which does nothing to help anything. I just couldn't separate the words and understand what she was saying. We did get everything worked out and had a good conversation. The point is that English is spoken in a multitude of different accents. Even if we only discuss northern and southern. I live in Pennsylvania and I don't sound like someone from Boston or even New York. This woman didn't sound like people I had met in Virginia and Texas just has an accent all its own. Personally, I like the accents but speaking too fast can affect how the words are heard.

And after living in Texas most of my life, I'm used to "listening slow."  Quick-speaking Northerners are sometimes incomprehensible.  Not the accent; the speed.

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13 hours ago, Hammerclaw said:

When I was a wee bairn, Northerners talking fast sounded like gibberish, before gradually resolving into words as my mind sped up to understand them.

We had a man from Newcastle in custody once, we had to get another Northerner to translate for us. I could not understand anything he said, but some people said they could get some meaning. It was worse than this:

 

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I remember the times when I didn't understand any English. It sounded like a torrent of weird noises, with almost no separate words discernible, like birds chirping, which amazingly had some meaning for those initiated who could understand it, because they listened to that chirping very carefully and expressed different emotions from time to time. I envied them very much. Incredibly I began to understand native English speakers only when began watching (the now-blocked in my country) YouTube: at the moment I studied English for almost 20 years but all these years were almost useless for understanding speech, only written text. It's not that I had no experience in listening English speech: sometimes I watched movies with subtitles but it was no fun at all because my brain struggled with reading text, often replete with weird artistic expressions, and listening to the words which graphically bore little resemblance to what I heard. And only when I began to consume English speech without text and without caring much about what I could understand and what I could not, thanks to YouTube, I gradually began to understand more and more without the help of subtitles. Nevertheless I still prefer watching movies with subtitles because if I can't understand a single word I instantly feel like I can't understand any English whatsoever.

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7 hours ago, pellinore said:

We had a man from Newcastle in custody once, we had to get another Northerner to translate for us. I could not understand anything he said, but some people said they could get some meaning. It was worse than this:

 

I had to translate @Commander CMG for people who can't comprehend "Borderer". 😆

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7 hours ago, pellinore said:

We had a man from Newcastle in custody once, we had to get another Northerner to translate for us. I could not understand anything he said, but some people said they could get some meaning. It was worse than this:

 

Yeah, the burr's a bit thick! I was watching a show called Connections, narrated by a chap named James Burke. I understood him perfectly, but my sister's husband from California couldn't. 

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22 hours ago, pellinore said:

We had a man from Newcastle in custody once, we had to get another Northerner to translate for us. I could not understand anything he said, but some people said they could get some meaning. It was worse than this:

 

If your read classical English literature (Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle) you find lower-class characters' lines like this quite often, spelled literally as "vot 'us 'ut all a'boot" 😆

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On 2/3/2025 at 2:19 AM, Chaldon said:

If your read classical English literature (Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle) you find lower-class characters' lines like this quite often, spelled literally as "vot 'us 'ut all a'boot" 😆

Yes, Rudyard Kipling wrote poetry in the vernacular, like that.

 

Danny Deever

‘What are the bugles blowin’ for?' said Files-on-Parade.   
‘To turn you out, to turn you out,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
‘What makes you look so white, so white?’ said Files-on-Parade.
‘I’m dreadin’ what I’ve got to watch,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
      For they’re hangin’ Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play,
      The Regiment’s in ’ollow square—they’re hangin’ him to-day;
      They’ve taken of his buttons off an’ cut his stripes away,
      An’ they're hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’.
 
‘What makes the rear-rank breathe so ’ard?’ said Files-on-Parade.
‘It’s bitter cold, it's bitter cold,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
‘What makes that front-rank man fall down?’ said Files-on-Parade.
‘A touch o’ sun, a touch o’ sun,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
      They are hangin’ Danny Deever, they are marchin’ of ’im round,
      They ’ave ’alted Danny Deever by ’is coffin on the ground;
      An’ ’e’ll swing in ’arf a minute for a sneakin’ shootin’ hound—
      O they’re hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin!’
 
‘’Is cot was right-’and cot to mine,’ said Files-on-Parade.
‘’E’s sleepin’ out an’ far to-night,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
‘I’ve drunk ’is beer a score o’ times,’ said Files-on-Parade.
‘’E’s drinkin’ bitter beer alone,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
      They are hangin’ Danny Deever, you must mark ’im to ’is place,
      For ’e shot a comrade sleepin’—you must look ’im in the face;
      Nine ’undred of ’is county an’ the Regiment’s disgrace,   
      While they’re hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’.
 
‘What’s that so black agin the sun?’ said Files-on-Parade.   
‘It’s Danny fightin’ ’ard for life,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.   
‘What’s that that whimpers over’ead?’ said Files-on-Parade.
‘It’s Danny’s soul that’s passin’ now,’ the Colour-Sergeant said.
      For they’re done with Danny Deever, you can ’ear the quickstep play,
      The Regiment’s in column, an’ they’re marchin’ us away;
      Ho! the young recruits are shakin’, an’ they’ll want their beer to-day,
      After hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’!
Edited by Hammerclaw
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I had to teach ESL to angels that spoke in tongues and that was like listening to English with marbles you would think such glorious creatures would speak loud enough to be heard clearly

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